Wednesday, 26 November 2008

Atari 5200 No-Intro 20081107 Set

"The Atari 5200 SuperSystem, or simply the Atari 5200, is a video game console that was introduced in 1982 by Atari Inc. as a replacement for the famous Atari 2600. The 5200 was created to compete with the Intellivision, but wound up more directly competing with the ColecoVision shortly after its release. A number of design flaws had a serious impact on usability, and the system is generally considered to have performed poorly on the market.

The 5200 was heavily based on Atari Inc.'s existing 400/800 computers and the internal hardware was almost identical. However, a number of issues (aside from the lack of a keyboard) meant that software was not directly compatible between the two systems.

Jungle Hunt (Atari 5200)

The Atari 5200 suffered from its software incompatibility with the Atari 2600, though an adapter was later released in 1983 allowing it to play all Atari 2600 games, using the more reliable controllers native to that system.

Another problem was the lack of attention that Atari Inc. gave to the console; most of its resources went to the already over saturated Atari 2600. It faced an uphill battle competing with the ColecoVision's head start and a faltering economy and video game market.

Pitfall (Atari 5200)

At one point during the 5200's lifespan, Atari Inc. planned on developing a smaller cost-reduced version of the Atari 5200, which would have gotten rid of the controller storage bin. Code-named the "Atari 5100" (a.k.a. "Atari 5200 Jr."), only a few fully-working prototype Atari 5100s were made before the project was cancelled." (Wikipedia)